Fortified church

A fortified church is a church that is built to serve a defensive role in times of war. Such churches were specially designed to incorporate military features, such as thick walls, battlements, and embrasures. Others, such as the Ávila Cathedral were incorporated into the town wall. Monastic communities, such as Solovki Monastery, are often surrounded by a wall, and some churches, such as St. Arbogast in Muttenz, Switzerland, have an outer wall as well. Churches with additional external defences such as curtain walls and wall towers are often referred to more specifically as fortress churches or Kirchenburgen (literally "church castles").

Most fortified churches may be found in parts of Europe In times were there was much hand-to-hand warfare,^[clarify] for example in the Dordogne region of France, fought over by France and England in medieval times, and in Transylvania, during the Ottoman invasions.^{[citation needed]} Fortified churches were also built in places controlled by colonial empires, such as one in the Philippines at the scene of the siege of Baler.^{[citation needed]}